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Cuts for coaches may put school sports out

Willie Addison’s oldest son, Corey, will play football at the University of South Carolina this fall.

Corey worked hard to earn his scholarship, but his father also gives credit to his high school football coach, Kevin Sullivan , at Andrew Jackson High School.

“It takes good coaches like Coach Sullivan and a good staff to get the kids ready for the next level,” Addison said.
“You take that away, the program will suffer and the kids will suffer.”

Cutting the supplemental pay for coaches and other extracurricular-activity directors is a real possibility in the cash-strapped Duval and Clay counties school districts. Paid to coaches, assistants, sponsors and directors on top of their base salaries, supplements range from $550 to nearly $4,000 in Duval and from more than $350 to around $6,400 in Clay.

They also apply to programs such as band, drama, debate, choir and cheerleading, and are meant to compensate the teachers for their extra hours.

The Jackson football coach for 10 years, Sullivan called athletic programs the best drop-out prevention initiative in schools. He said coaches do a lot to change students’ lives through mentoring and grade monitoring.

“Nobody’s doing it for the money,” he said, “but the thought that they would even think about taking the little bit of money … to do that, it’s just unbelievable.”

The Duval and Clay districts put supplements on the possible chopping block — both districts have listed supplements among the cuts that could be made as soon as next school year — because of the state’s budget crisis and the amount of money they need to save. The supplement cuts would save Duval $5.3 million and Clay $3 million.

Severe budget crisis

Duval is facing an estimated $112 million shortfall. Clay’s is $43 million.

“Everything has to be on the table out of necessity, when you talk about a cut of that magnitude,” Clay County School Board member Frank Farrell said. “You’re just talking absolutely horrendous proportions. We’re working against a very ill-defined and moving target and it makes it very difficult to make choices.”

As to what their athletic programs would look like next year if they were forced to do away with supplements, administrators aren’t sure.

“That’s our major concern,” said Pat Willis , deputy superintendent for Duval schools. “Many of them rely on these supplement salaries to help them in these economic times. Many will not be able to do it and some of the activities that are being offered to our students would not be offered.”

If Duval cuts supplements, Sullivan said, he would continue coaching through next season as a commitment to his current players, but he couldn’t say if he would continue coaching after next season.

St. Johns County schools spokeswoman Margie Davidson wouldn’t say if the district was considering cutting supplements but said nothing was beyond consideration.

Sharyl Wood , spokeswoman for Nassau County schools, said budget discussions for next year have, to this point, not included supplements.

“However, it depends a lot on what we have to cut out of our budget,” she said. “Hopefully we wouldn’t have to go there.”

Will coaches stay?

Danny Green , head football coach at Orange Park High School, said he didn’t think many coaches would stick around without supplements.

“I don’t foresee that happening unless they somehow promise that this is going to be a one-year situation. I think it would be very, very difficult,” he said, although he wouldn’t say what decision he would make.

“What it’s really going to affect is the quality of coaching that young men and women are going to get.”

Not all coaches, though, are convinced the sidelines would be empty.

“I would still be able to do it because I’m still single and I don’t have any kids, so it would be easier for me,” said Phong Le , who coaches swimming, soccer and tennis at Paxon School for Advanced Studies. “It wouldn’t affect me as much as it would an academic teacher or a teacher who has a family.

“I’m just happy if I still have a job next year as a P.E. teacher. And if I can do that, I’ll definitely still coach.”

Liability concerns

Jon Fox, athletic director for Duval schools, said cutting supplements also would raise questions about liability concerns, workmen’s compensation and even equity. Equity becomes a concern if some schools and programs are able to have coaches like Le who are willing to volunteer their time, while other schools or programs can’t find volunteers.

“I just don’t see how you can have an inequity from school to school or from gender to gender in terms of the opportunity to be coached,” he said. “I just think that would be the worst possible scenario.”

Fox said parents, athletes and students in other activities should be patient and continue to pay attention to district budget talks.

“Yes, be concerned, know that it’s a possibility, but that’s basically it,” Fox said. “We’re scheduling as if we are in regular mode next year.”

Addison said he understands the financial situation but hopes schools officials will consider all the benefits students gain from sports.

“They’re learning teamwork, they’re learning togetherness, they’re learning how to trust other people,” Addison said. “Some of these kids don’t have a good parent structure; for some of these kids, the coaches are the parents for them.”

For Sullivan, Jackson’s coach, the question falls back to quality.

“What kind of coaches are you going to get when you take away the little bit of a supplement that they get?” he asked. “It’s not fair to the kids, it’s not fair to the schools and it’s not fair to the coach.”